Training Day
by paynesgrey
Summary: Death offers Adam Monroe a job as a Reaper. Adam Monroe from Heroes, Tessa from Supernatural. Spoilers for Heroes Season 4 and Supernatural Season 6. ONESHOT.


AN: Written for the crossover challenge at heroes_faves on Livejournal. ONESHOT.

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><p><span>Training Day<span>

One moment he was dust, returned from whence he was born like the biblical Adam of his namesake.

Then, Adam blinked open his eyes and he was somewhere else, a strange place that seemed otherworldly underneath its normal exterior. How he came from dying by Arthur Petrelli's hand to eating pizza in Chicago, he didn't know. He supposed the lovely brunette watching him from the other side of the table would enlighten him.

"Before you ask a billion questions, yes, you died, and no, you're not in Heaven or Hell," she says. Her gaze is emotionless, a little intrigued but definitely not impressed.

"I'm dead and I'm not in Hell, but I'm in a pizza place called Sandy's in Chicago," he says, and after a pause. "America, brilliant. Well, definitely not Heaven."

The woman doesn't even smirk. She almost stares through his soul. Adam has no doubt that maybe she can do that.

"Yes, but you won't get to eat the pizza. Adam Monroe, we need you, and as it so happens," she says, rising from her chair, "we have an opening. I'm called Tessa by the way"

"An opening? Well, Tessa, I assume since is the afterlife, by opening you mean I'm about to get my angel wings?" He laughs lightly at himself, but again, the woman is not amused.

"Hardly," she answers, and for the first time since he's awakened to find her, she smirks. "Trust me; you're getting the better deal here. I don't know anyone who wants to be an angel anymore."

Adam supposes there's something she's not telling him, but he pays no mind to it and he looks to her for guidance. Really, he's only concerned what she has planned for him and what's this "opening" she's mentioned.

"Putting it plainly, Death, you've heard of him right? He needs Reapers. We had an incident where some Reapers were kidnapped and killed," she says, and Adam listens on with genuine interest. "Long story short, Angels and Demons are battling as usual, and we got caught up in it. Some of our Reapers died," she explains, and she turns him. "That's where you come in."

"You want me to harvest dead souls?" Adam asks, incredulous and more than a little excited. He's always known he was meant for great things, and though he hasn't had time to mull over the feelings, he is quite certain his death was extremely premature, even living all those years as a regenerated immortal.

"Death has chosen you," Tessa says, and her voice is as cold as steel. "I haven't made up my mind about you, so of course he wants me to train you - if you accept."

"I absolutely accept," Adam says, a little too enthusiastically. Tessa eyes him carefully. "Well, it's better than being dust, love, and you were just going to reap my soul and throw it into the pit of Hell anyway."

Tessa stares at him. "Fair enough. At least you're not stupid."

"I've accumulated centuries of wisdom, I assure you," he says dryly.

"Yes, you are a special human, aren't you? One of God's latest indulgences," she says, catching his stare. "A human evolved with extraordinary powers." Her expression remains placid. She still isn't impressed with him, and truthfully, Adam has no desire to impress her anyway.

"Well, if your boss wants me, then I must honor his wishes," he says. "It can't be that hard, eh? He offs them, and we go in to guide them along."

"It's more complicated than that. The souls will have questions, and you must not let human emotion get in the way of your reaping. All of them must die as Death's list intends."

"I don't think I'll have a problem with that human emotion thing, love," Adam says with a wink, and Tessa frowns lightly. Adam delights in the little crunch her brow does as he flirts with her.

"Come on, your training has begun," she says mechanically, moving forward. He follows dutifully behind her. "You must also know that we change considerably in appearance when we become Reapers. Our human form is only necessary to comfort the dead. They would be scared of our true forms and may not agree to pass over."

"I see," Adam says. "So we look like bones in an old black cape," he guesses, and Tessa nods.

"Something like that," she says with a quirk to her quickly fading smirk. Adam watches their surroundings. He doesn't know if they're traveling at an intense speed or if they're just shifting through time from one destination to the next. Scenery shifts from Chicago, to the prairies, through the oceans, and finally - Japan. "Here is your first case."  
>Adam's breath comes out unexpectedly ragged. "You took me to Japan."<p>

Tessa turns to him, and without much conjecture, Adam is sure she's almost satisfied by his reaction. True, he's initially painted himself as someone aloof, someone who doesn't care about human emotions or about the passing of death - that reaping souls will be a piece of cake.

But Japan.

Memories of Yaeko flood through his mind. His heart almost pangs from the onslaught of human emotion that he has tried centuries to bury and discard.

Tessa stands beside him, motionless and patient, as he leans over the bedding of a dying woman. She's very young, much like the age his Yaeko was, and her face contorts in pain. Finally, her pain is gone, and her body is nothing but a shell. Adam meets her as she looms over her own body, staring down with wonder. She turns to him. "It is my time?" She asks him in Japanese, and he's almost taken aback on how much he misses speaking the language.

She's saddened, but she isn't overly emotional. "I will miss my family. I hope they will remember me." Adam follows her eyes to a picture of her hugging a man assumed to be her husband. Two smiling children push themselves into the frame of the picture, only adding to the couple's captured happy moment.

"They will," Adam says in Japanese, his voice coming off softer than he expects. She smiles at him, bowing lightly. He bows with her, and they walk a few steps before she disappears into a flash of light.

"I'm surprised. Great job," Tessa says behind him, but his heart is aching and her presence almost angers him. Instead, his feelings coil into a dull ache as she takes him to the next soul.

Reaping souls isn't easy. Adam goes through a mixture of human emotions as he meets soul after soul, answering their last questions about life and death in the most comforting ways he can manage. He becomes very good at his job, and soon, he's able to switch off the emotions as he's done before - being a smooth talker who only wants to do his job correctly. Tessa doesn't compliment him; though, she knows that Adam is fitting in as a new Reaper. Soon, she'll leave him to his own devices, reaping souls without supervision, and Adam will be more than grateful for her absence. He wonders if other Reapers are as cold as Tessa, and if they are, how soon until he becomes just like the rest?

"We have one last test for you, Adam, and then you'll be on your own," Tessa says, and when he blinks, she's transported them to another unfamiliar hospital. Adam follows her gaze, and his mouth opens as he sees who his next soul is.

Hiro Nakamura.

_No, Hiro can't be dying._Adam feels conflicted. He's wanted to kill Hiro himself on several occasions, and for most of his long life, killing Hiro was one of the things that had consumed his mind, twisting him to make plans to destroy the Company and release the Shanti virus onto the world.

Then, Hiro betrayed him again, sealing him in a grave that would be his underground prison.

Yes, Hiro has meant many things to him, good and bad, but Adam never imagined him to die like this, in a hospital bed.

"Brain tumor," Tessa says. "You know him."

"So this is my test," Adam says bitterly, turning to Tessa with hard eyes. "You lot really have a droll sense of humor."

"If you pass this, then you have no more training," Tessa says. "It's nothing that you can't handle, Adam. Hiro is your enemy anyway, isn't it?"

"He _was_my enemy," Adam says, his voice trailing off. "Not anymore. Not when I'm like this." Adam tilts his head sympathetically as he stares at the helpless man in his bed, hooked up to machines. "He shouldn't die like this. When I imagine Hiro, I imagine him dying by the sword."

"He still can," Tessa says, and Adam looks at her confused.

"We can go into their minds at the brink of death and help them sort out their troubles. If Hiro really is meant to die like this, you must help him find his true way," Tessa said.

Adam scoffs. "So I'm meant to help Hiro possibly circumvent death," Adam says. "I thought that was one of Death's rules I wasn't meant to break."

Tessa smirks again. "He isn't dead _yet_." She turns her gaze back to him, and Adam looks around as the hospital begins to fade into a ghostly white.

"What must I do?" he asks, and he hears Tessa's voice fading too.

"Play a role, Adam. Play the role that Hiro remembers," she answers, and Adam doesn't like how amused she sounds.

He blinks twice, and he's sitting a table in a courtroom. Suddenly, as if by magic, Adam knows what he must do. Sometime later, Hiro arrives.

Death and Tessa want him to play a role, well by God, he plays one.

He calls for Hiro's death. He wields a sword. He feels the weight of Hiro's sins, no heavier and no lighter than his own.

The grip around his sword feels so real. Emotions fly high, and Adam knows he's being tested. He has to make every step, every slash, and every word count.

Hiro's life is at stake, after all, and Adam doesn't know if he really can bear it if Hiro loses. So, Adam fights to win.

He is dead again, and he feels the cut of Hiro's sword as if it were real, as real as a memory of another life lost only for him to revive again. The white fades away and Adam clutches his stomach, feeling the phantom blood seep through him. He looks down and sees nothing has changed.

"You didn't win the fight," Tessa says, as if it isn't already obvious. Hiro has already revived and the worst from his brain tumor is over.

Adam meets her eyes and smiles. "I was playing to win, like always," he says, and for once, Adam sees a genuine smile on Tessa's face. Or, maybe it's a smile of relief.

"Well, new guy, it's off to start Reaping by yourself. I'd say, 'call me if you need me,' but you know I won't really come," she says, and he watches as she's already walking away, her back turned to him.

"I won't need you," he says, feeling compelled to have the last word. Tessa waves to him as she continues on, and she disappears as Adam looks away.

He's never really needed people before, not really. He's lived centuries of his life on his own, and he certainly can live centuries of his afterlife by himself as well.

Adam's always believed he was special, that his life was meant for something great. Well, it wasn't his life that was meant for wonderful things; Adam has learned that well.

He was always meant for the afterlife, and Adam admits, honestly, that Death really quite suits him.

END


End file.
